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Chemo and the Cold Cap

In the past six months I have had three friends, all male, diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. They are in they are in their 40’s, 60’s and 70’s respectively. Cancer can strike anyone at any age, no matter their state of health and fitness. My friends are either on chemotherapy or are about to start. This shocked me and has brought back to me my journey last year.

How did I cope with chemo? Did I cope with chemo? I did. I’m still here and yet I realise every day that my body hasn’t fully healed from the experience. I still have after-effects: poor digestion (for which I’m taking a range of supplements to heal my gastro-intestinal tract), aching joints, patchy ability to remember things I’ve just read or said and lower energy. I understand that it will take a year or two for me to be fully robust (if there is such a thing) again.

Cold Cap.

Penguin Cold Cap (promotional image)

So on Thursday 12 July – Chemo 1 Day – I went to Chemo Cottage, met the nurses, sat in a reclining chair, smiled at the woman next to me in the cold cap and had one put on my head. The pain was excruciating at first. Tears welled up in my eyes and I thought my head was going to explode. Then after 30 minutes my epidermis started to freeze and the pain subsided. The ‘cold cap’ is a couple of icepacks frozen to -35C, that are wrapped around your head and changed every 30 minutes. They freeze the epidermis which helps save your hair. Its use doubles the treatment time. It is put on 30 minutes before the chemotherapy drugs are fed into your body and stays on for the time again that it takes to administer the drugs – about six hours in total in my case.

Whilst I was clear I was choosing to have chemotherapy, I had some fear of what the experience would be like, particularly as I am not a person who takes medications; the occasional painkiller perhaps. So I created the drugs as ‘love’ going into my body, making me well, be that in the long term.

I’ll talk more in another blog about how I coped with the chemo and maintained the best body health possible during the process.

I persisted with the cold cap throughout my chemo treatments and it got easier each time. Usually the first 10 minutes of the first two cold caps were the most difficult, then I settled into the routine: made sure I drank plenty of fluid – water and herbal tea; rugged up with the heated blankets provided; wore my ‘glamorous’ Ugg boots and several layers of wool. Then I went home to bed to keep warm.

I found I couldn’t eat or read whilst receiving treatment. Listening to classical music was soothing and lulled me into sleep from time to time.

What happened to my hair? Fortunately and coincidentally, 3 months before I found the lump and started chemotherapy I had had my hair cut short. This was an advantage as it’s less likely to fall out.

For the first two treatments I pretty much maintained a full head of hair. Then it started to fall out with the third treatment and continued to fall out with subsequent treatments and then for a couple of months after the treatment stopped. By the end of the shedding I still had 40-50% of my original hair. It was bleached and thin with a couple of small bald spots. BUT I STILL HAD HAIR!

Post chemo my eyebrows began to thin, then all my eyelashes fell out, almost overnight.

Mia Farrow Cut

At the beginning of December, 6 months after treatment started and 2 months after it finished, I was able to have a light hair trim. As luck would have it, the route home was gridlocked with traffic, so I stopped in at David Jones and as I neared the Chanel counter, a ‘divine’ makeup artist asked if he could help me. I said, “I have recently finished chemotherapy and my eyelashes have fallen out, is there any way I can do my eyes to look like I have them?” He sat me down and proceeded to do a full make up. By then end I loved the vision I saw in the mirror. I asked him what he had done. As he told me he didn’t try to sell any of the cosmetics. I felt no pressure and bought the ones I wanted to make myself look the way he had.

Then at the end of January this year I had a very very short haircut and came out of the salon feeling and ‘looking’ like Mia Farrow. For the first time in more than 9 months I felt glamorous.

My hair has grown back thicker, grey and curly. I still have short hair to keep the ‘Shirley Temple‘ look at bay. I still feel glamorous and my friends tell me I look great. OH WHAT A FEELING!